I love dreaming. Every event of my life plunges me into fantasy. The village in Sai Kung’s Ho Chung where I grew up is my dream factory, where many of the scenes and concepts in my films originate. It is indeed where many scenes in my second feature Big Blue Lake are set. That film has a special place in my filmmaking experience. From fund raising to putting together the cast and crew to distribution, every aspect of the film was a new experience. As a new director, I have lots of expectations for the future! I vow to continue dreaming, to tell stories of light and shadow, so that the people and events of our city will be recorded and their tales shared with the world.

Biography

Jessey Tsang Tsui-shan is an independent filmmaker and video-maker. She studied sound design at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, graduating in 2001, after which she attended City University of Hong Kong, receiving a Master’s degree in 2005.

Tsang started making films and videos around the turn of the millennium, taking advantage of the emergence of inexpensive digital equipment. Her early works are short pieces based on the lives of herself and the people around her, such as Jeffven & Jordy (2001) and Chan Sau Chun (2001), both co-directed with fellow Academy for Performing Arts graduate Eric Hui Chungyin and both winning prizes at the Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards (IFVA). The first film she directed by herself, Lonely Planet (2004), won the Silver Award at the 10th IFVA and her The Life and Times of Ho Chung Village (2009) received a Special Mention at the 15th IFVA.

In 2008, Tsang released her first feature, Lovers on the Road (2008), the story of a Hong Kong woman’s life in the city of Beijing, won the Best Feature award at the 2009 South Taiwan Film and Video Festival. Her second feature, Big Blue Lake (2011), set in the Hou Chung area of Sai Kung where she grew up, won several awards in Hong Kong and internationally, such as the Jury Prix at the Shanghai International Film Festival, Best New Director at the Hong Kong Film Awards and New Artist Award by the Hong Kong Art Development Council.

Remaining active in independent cinema, such as working with the independent outfits River Vision Production and Ying E Chi, Tsang is also involved in mainstream film production, in capacities as varied as production coordination, assistant directing and sound recording.

In 2014, Tsang completed Flowing Stories (2014), a documentary on the Ho Chung village of the Sai Kung area.